The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for securing a specimen, and more particularly to such an apparatus able to secure, transport and house the specimen during subsequent diagnostic irradiation and preparation of tissue samples.
Currently, when a biopsy is taken from a body, for example, from a woman's breast to make a cancer diagnosis, the specimen is merely put in a jar or other like container. It is quite difficult to insure that the proper orientation is kept, ie. medial, lateral, posterior, nipple, when the specimen is taken out of the container to be irradiated by, for example, an X-ray. Further, it is quite difficult for the doctor/radiologist to precisely identify for the pathologist or technician the medically suspect areas within the specimen. Still further, even if the suspect areas were identified accurately, there is yet the possibility that the pathologist or technician may prepare tissue samples taken from the wrong areas. As such, there is a fair amount of guesswork, even for the most skilled doctors and pathologists, involved in the current procedure for evaluation and diagnosis of biopsy specimens. As can be appreciated, any error created due to the uncertainties outlined above may result in misdiagnosis of a particular sample, which may have unfortunate or even disastrous consequences.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for securing, transporting and analyzing a specimen, which apparatus advantageously houses the specimen from the moment it is taken from the patient's body until the time the tissue samples are prepared from it. It is a further object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus which is sufficiently transparent to the diagnostic radiation used so as to prevent undesirable interference with the testing medium. Still further, it is an object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus which will provide resistance from the specimen rotating from its initial orientation as placed within the apparatus by the surgeon. Yet still further, it is an object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus which is size adjustable so as to closely fit variously sized specimens. Still further, it is an object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus having means for precisely identifying any suspect areas in the specimen, which means may be used by the radiologist as well as the pathologist cutting and preparing the tissue samples from the specimen. Yet still further, it is an object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus and method which is cost effective and saves a large amount of time and expense in cutting and preparing tissue samples.